


Mettle on Parade

by Girl_chama



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Flash Fiction, Fluff, Friendship, Jealousy, Romance I guess, Shuffle Challenge, Teamwork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-04
Updated: 2013-12-14
Packaged: 2018-01-03 11:11:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1069783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Girl_chama/pseuds/Girl_chama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unconnected shorts, moments in the lives of Steve Rogers and Darcy Lewis together, and not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Clarity

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Soundtrack of Our Lives](https://archiveofourown.org/works/577200) by [daniellemydear](https://archiveofourown.org/users/daniellemydear/pseuds/daniellemydear). 



> Shuffle Challenge Rules  
> 1.Pick a fandom/couple/crossover you like.  
> 2.Turn on your music player and put it on random (aka: shuffle).  
> 3.Write a drabble related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it ends.  
> 4.No lingering afterwards. No cheating.  
> 5.Do 10 of these and post them.

 

“Clarity” by Zedd (feat. Foxes)

_'Cause you are, the piece of me,_

_I wish, I didn't need_

_Chasing, relentlessly,_

_Still fight and I don't know why_

_If our love, is tragedy,_

_Why are you my remedy?_

_If our love's, insanity,_

_Why are you my clarity?_

 

Darcy drew herself away from the city scape as her eyes closed, and took a step back from the roof’s edge.  Decisions were hers for the making.  No one was here to influence her one way or the other, pushing her thoughts and feelings into the corner of cage until they snarled like an animal.  She knew she could be beastly when pushed.  Another point against her.  Another reason to add to the confusion that whorled in her mind.

“ _But if you want to be with me now, really be with me, why would you not want to be with me later?_ ” were the hurt words that kept her from resting easy, that kept a lock on her smiles and snark alike.  A fair question, and one that she jumped at answering, but not the way he wanted.

What would make him stay? 

What would protect her heart if he decided to leave? 

What if she couldn’t hold his interest? 

What could guarantee forever?


	2. Back 2 Good

"Back 2 Good" by Matchbox 20

  
_But I'm sorry now, and I don't know how_   
_To get it back to good_   


 

One.

  
Two.

  
Three.

  
Four.

  
Four hits as his knuckles work over the bag, foregoing gloves for tape and a sense of release. His heart is still aching in ways that have no outlet. His hands, however…

  
She hasn’t spoken to him in two days, asking for time, doing her best not to bolt like a frightened rabbit at the question. He can almost laugh at the sharp difference between Now and Before, when women avoided him for different reasons, but what does the reason matter if the result is the same?

  
He sighs, and cuts off that train of thought with another half-hearted tap against the bag. Two different topics, and self-pity has never done him any good. Darcy isn’t other women. He isn’t the same as he has was back Then.

  
Not for the first time he wonders what made him so damned pushy on the topic. It’s been a question, niggling at him for months, and since then it has only burned brighter in his chest with every day he has been lucky enough to spend with her. Smart, funny, lovely Darcy, who doesn’t back away from a fight, who doesn’t hesitate to knock arrogant people down a peg or two, who isn’t afraid of anything- until ‘anything’ is him.

  
He’s done his best to protect her heart, done his best to let her know they are on the same side and she has no reason to fear him, with arms and hands and words. She is safe with him. She would be safe with him forever. And now it is left up to her to believe him.


	3. Home Guldove

“Home Guldove” by Yasunori Mitsuda from the Chrono Cross SDTK

* * *

She was lively and vivacious on her best days.  Full of piss and vinegar, Jane had cautioned him in wry moments.  He had seen her get away with actions that would have gotten others fired or hurt in retribution and offense, but her spirit had a way of navigating prickly personalities, slipping past defenses in a manner even SHIELD would have envied.

He had never seen her, though, move with the freedom and beauty that she did now.  Her bare feet glanced over the ground, dotting it with whimsy as she smiled back at him.  Glasses framed a bright grin while her hair caught the wind and billowed, and still she turned, effortlessly lovely.  Light.

He wanted to draw her, wanted to be with her and be part of everything she was in this moment.  In the future. Forever.

He wanted her to be. To be Darcy.

When she raced back, not breaking her pace or peace of mind, still calm and open, her fingers claimed his and she said only, “I’m waiting for you to dance with me, soldier.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The [extended] version of the song I listened to while writing this can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQxUwrP6j6o (hopefully AO3 doesn't cute YouTube URLs. If not, just search "Chrono Cross Home Guldove" and it should be the first result. Thanks!


	4. Not Your Fault

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I feel like there should be more hang ups about Darcy's similarity to another feisty brunette. No? Just me? Mmmk.

“Not Your Fault” by Awolnation

_She was built with a brain_

_And some swagger._

_A little scream, little cry,_

_Little laughter._

_She's a ten,_

_I'm a joke in my own mind._

_But she still loves to dance_

_With my punch lines._

* * *

_  
_  


She tapped the rim of her shot glass, disturbing the rock salt with her order for another, as she watched Steve leave the bar.  Her eyes did not register the bartender, too consumed with the sight of his departing back.  Bunched and tensed muscles passed through the open door; she only got another split-second of them before he disappeared to the night.

“Good,” she murmured, and sank back into her seat, numb from one too many rounds of Patron or one too many comparisons to 1940. 

Dark hair. 

Bright eyes. 

Small right hook. 

Strong will. 

Strong mind.

“God-damned Margaret Carter,” she snorted and downed another round.


	5. It Won't Be Long

“It Won’t Be Long” by Rachel Evan Woods from the Across the Universe SDTK

 

Every day we'll be happy, I know,

Now I know that you won't leave me no more.

It won't be long yeah,

Till I belong to you.

 

* * *

 

Steve didn’t know whether he should be laughing or crying or both.  At least he couldn’t be sad while he watched Darcy flip her hair over her shoulder and air-guitar the rock ballad, passionately throwing her own harmony into the blend.

She leaped to one foot, kicking and hopping to the rhythm as her eyes turned to Doctor Foster, who was looking less weepy by the moment.

“Now I know that you won’t leave me no more!”  Darcy  assured her friend and supervisor.  Jane shook her head, but her eyes were smiling, lips following just after.

“It won’t be long,” Darcy reassured, and Steve grinned at the sentiment, until he realized Darcy turned her eyes on him, "‘til I belong to youu~uu!"  


	6. We Are One Tonight

We Are One Tonight by Switchfoot

  
_We are one tonight_   
_And were dreaming out loud_   
_Though the world is flawed,_   
_These scars will heal!_   


* * *

 

“We’re a team, right?  You know that?” Darcy asked, looking over at him.  He pretended not to notice how strained her knuckles looked as she gripped the safety railing at the rooftop’s edge.  She had no fear of heights.

“Are we?” he asked, with a wry smile, teasing but unable to overcome the serious mood around them.

Darcy grinned and their knuckles bumped each other as both made to cover the other’s hand.  She laughed and twined their fingers together, pulling his hand to her mouth.  Her lips were warm against the back of his hand.  He had a moment to be touched, nearly overwhelmed by the tenderness of it, before he had a side full of Lewis.

She didn’t mind putting her whole weight against him, and he didn’t mind holding her up.  They were a team, afterall.

“All in,” she murmured, over the faint din of traffic and wind and life below them.

“All in,” he echoed.  “I like it.”  Then he lightly squeezed her fingers, and inhaled deeply as she returned the gesture.


	7. Clash

“Clash” by Marc Streitenfeld from the Robinhood SDTK

* * *

 

The shield flew over Darcy’s head as she finished tucking to the ground, her heart racing.  Not from Steve’s actions.  She would always trust him to watch her back, to make sure that they both made it home.  Or to try to.  Intentions couldn’t always protect them from their enemies.

No, she was worried about the enemy, converging on their location and Steve’s demand that she stay down. For once she was too scared to argue with him, trusting his experience, his strength, to get them out of this.  And trusting that he wouldn’t do it alone.

As soon as the shield cleared her head, she lifted just enough to look at the computer screen once more, her fingers digging into the laptop with purpose.  She felt the full necessity of her presence and inhaled sharply, smelling gunpowder and an acrid something else.  Just a few seconds more.  A few more and then everything would be over.


	8. Wake Up

“Wake Up” by Alanis Moirsette

  
_There's an obvious attraction_  
To the path of least resistance in your life.  
There's an obvious aversion no amount of my insistence  
Could make you try tonight.  


* * *

She pressed the bell one more time, feeling the unpleasant squelch of her shirt trying to shift at her back, her armpits.  The static-filled voice finally came through the com.

“Hello?”

“It’s me,” she sighed, refrained from resting her head against the brick facing.

“Darcy…” his voice hesitated, and she winced and gave into the urge.  The brick was cold against her forehead but no worse than the tightness in her chest.

“Yeah,” she affirmed, and a moment later her bravery appeared, “Can I come up?”

There was silence for a long moment.  She already knew the answer when he replied, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.  Sharon’s here and-“

“Yeah, nevermind,” she replied with a brightness she didn’t feel, embarrassment in her chest and shoulders overshadowing all the other pains and inconveniences.  “I just- uh, nevermind.  Have a good night.”  She was an idiot, of course.  She turned and quickly slipped down the stairs of the old brownstone, pretending that she could not hear his garbled excuses behind her.  

The rain continued falling overhead.


	9. Cefca

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the next installation though the true piece I wrote after "Wake Up" was to the song "Armpit Hair" by Alix Olson, which ended up being 63 whole words, lol. I was so stumped.
> 
> So onto better things.

Cefca by Square-Enix/Nobuo Uematsu from the Final Fantasy 6 SDTK

http://youtu.be/X-U7uHhLavc

* * *

 

 

“If I had known that it was going to turn out this way, would I have done it?  Yes, I would have done it,” she affirmed, her words rising in pitch and volume with every syllable.  “I made a choice.  It was a hard choice, but it was the _right_ one!”

“I can’t-“ Steve shook his head, words breaking, and bodily drew away from her.  “I can’t believe you can even justify this to yourself.”  His disapproval was as plain on his face as the patriotism of his uniform.

“Then maybe you should take it up with yourself,” she demanded, breezing past him onto the causeway.  “Because one of us will be sleeping easy tonight.” 

It was the second lie she had told him in as many minutes.


	10. Ghosts

"Ghosts" by Dexter Freebish

When I'm playing in the rain  
The rain will wash my pain away

And it makes my life a holiday.

* * *

 

 

Steve swallowed as the brunette slipped through the crowded doorway, her body squeezing past his without touching.  Close, but not quite.  It was a small entry way.  Then again, he had the tendency to make any passage small.  He only paid her another moment’s attention before Tony called, “Welcome to the future, Captain,” an admonishment disguised as a plea.

It was a private conversation, as he tried to keep most of his life, but the young woman only smiled at him, pushing an electronic clipboard towards Stark.

“Lewis, thank you kindly for visiting me today.”  Steve took a step away, dismissed.  “Glad you brought your friends,” came the next words, and Steve glanced back to see Tony glancing down at the young woman’s ample chest. 

He frowned, distracted from Tony’s condescension by his lewdness, and was opening his mouth to intervene, when she answered, “Too bad you didn’t do the same.”  He saw her unapologetically glance down at Tony’s crotch, shrugging as she did so, and he was undeniably reminded of Peggy Carter’s right hook.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I missed a day posting thanks to a ridiculous snow storm that just hit the Middle East, Jordan included. Fortunately I've had more chance to work on back burner projects. This ends Mettle on Parade, ending on a high note. Yahoo! Thanks for reading :)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a little bit rusty in writing and wanting to finish 'In the Lurch' before I die. This challenge was inspired after reading 'daniellemydear's similar shuffle challenge, though I don't claim to share her prowess- knocking the rust off, afterall. I've been having lots of Steve/Darcy feels lately, though, so here we go. Besides, I can contribute to fandom instead of just mooching. And oh man, has the last week involved some mooching. So, the only departure from the challenge is, also like DMD, is polishing each post before sharing.


End file.
